The Lancashireman's software : DhG2

Red rose of Lancashire

Command reference

DhG2 commands are described here in alphabetical order.

You can abbreviate commands using sufficient leading characters to identify the command uniquely. If what you type is not unique, DhG2 gives you a list of the commands that match.

When a command expects a PERSON as its parameter, you can specify the person by their unique identifier, either as a bare number or enclosed in brackets.

You can also specify a person by parts of a name. Any person whose name contains all the specified parts is considered as a match. If there is more than one match, the command displays a list of matching persons along with their identifiers and dates. You can then retype the command using the identifier.

ancestors

Synopsis

The ancestors command displays an ancestry tree (also known as an Ahnentafel) for the specified person.

The depth of the tree is limited to the value of the depth configuration parameter.

Usage

clearprivacy

Synopsis

The clearprivacy command clears the calculated privacy of all persons in the database.

Calculating the privacy status for every person in a large database can be a time-consuming process, so the value for each individual is only calculated when needed. The calculated value is then stored and used when subsequently needed.

However, explicitly changing a person’s privacy by setting the person to private or deleting their death record might affect other persons’ status too. The clearprivacy command clears and the caclulated privacy values and forces a recalculation the next time they are needed.

Usage

descendants

Synopsis

The descendants command displays a descendants tree for the specified person.

The depth of the tree is limited to the value of the depth configuration parameter.

Usage

edit

Synopsis

The edit command invokes your configured editor to edit the card file of the specified person.

Usage

family

Synopsis

The family command displays the immediate family - parents, siblings and children - of the specified person.

Usage

find

Synopsis

The find command displays a list of persons that match the given parameters.

search is an alias for find.

Usage

gedimport

Synopsis

The gedimport command imports a GEDCOM file into an empty database. The command allows you to use the query and HTML generation features of DhG2 on the contents of an existing GEDCOM file. However, importing a GEDCOM file into an existing database is not supported. Neither is it possible to save the imported database into a set of card files.

If you use the new command after importing a GEDCOM file, the new person is added to the database as a card file. This means that you can no longer use the gedimport command unless you manually delete the card files that you created.

Caveat: The gedimport command was written with a specific GEDCOM file in mind. It might not work with other GEDCOM files from different sources.

Usage

ha

ha is an alias for htmlancestors.

hc

hc is an alias for htmlcard.

hd

hd is an alias for htmldescendants.

heads

Synopsis

The heads command displays a list of all the patriarchs and/or matriarchs in the database. A patriarch (male) or matriarch (female) is defined as a person whose parents AND whose spouse’s parents are not recorded in the database.

Usage

help

Synopsis

The help command provides the built-in documentation.

Usage

hi

hi is an alias for htmlindex.

htmlancestors

Synopsis

The htmlancestors command creates an ancestors tree (also known as an Ahnentafel) in HTML format for the specified person or persons. The HTML file is called FULLNAME-ID-ancestors.html and is placed in the trees/ subdirectory of the configured HTML directory.

ha is an alias for htmlancestors.

Usage

htmlcard

Synopsis

The htmlcard command creates an information card in HTML format for the specified person or persons. The HTML file is called SURNAME/FULLNAME-ID.html and is placed in the cards\ subdirectory of the configured HTML directory.

hc is an alias for htmlcard.

Usage

htmldescendants

Synopsis

The htmldescendants command creates a descendants tree in HTML format for the specified person or persons. The HTML file is called FULLNAME-ID-descendants.html and is placed in the trees/ subdirectory of the configured HTML directory.

hd is an alias for htmldescendants.

Usage

htmlindex

Synopsis

The htmlindex command creates an index to the HTML card files in HTML format.

hi is an alias for htmlindex.

Usage

list

Synopsis

The list command lists all the persons in the database. It ignores any parameters that you type.

list is equivalent to find with no parameters.

Usage

new

Synopsis

The new command creates a card file for a new person and loads the new file into memory.

The NAME parameter is the full name of the person as normally written. DhG2 automatically assigns a unique ID for the person.

The new file is placed into the appropriate surname directory in the database, optionally under the current branch. See the configuration guide for details.

Usage

Example

quit

Synopsis

The quit command closes DhG2.

Usage

reload

Synopsis

The reload command reloads the entire database from the card files into memory.

Normally you should not need to do this. The command is useful if you edit many card files outside of a running DhG2 process.

Hint: if you edit a single card file it might be quicker just to open the file within DhG2 and close it without making changes.

Usage

search is an alias for find.

set

Synopsis

The set command sets the configuration variable NAME to VALUE.

NAME can be any sequence of characters starting with a non-space character, except “cfgfile”.

Spaces immediately before and after the ‘=’ sign are ignored, as are any trailing spaces at the end of the line. Quotation marks around VALUE are removed after the leading and trailing spaces have been removed, so if you want to set a value containing a leading or trailing space, use quotation marks.

If used without parameters, set displays the name of the configuration file followed by all the configuration variables that have been set, in alphabetical order.

See the configuration guide for details of the configuration variables that DhG2 uses.

Usage

shell

Synopsis

The shell command invokes a program from your computer’s operating system using the specified COMMANDLINE. The current working directory (cwd) of the program is the same as the cwd in which DhG2 was originally invoked.

COMMANDLINE is passed to the shell interpreter exactly as you type it, so you can use output and input redirection.

! is an alias for shell.

Usage

showprivacy

Synopsis

The showprivacy command shows the privacy status of a specified person.

Usage

timeline

Synopsis

The timeline command displays the timeline for the specified person.

Usage

tl

tl is an alias for timeline.

unused

Synopsis

The unused command provides a list of all the unused unique identifiers up to the highest known identifier that is used.

Usage

verify

Synopsis

The verify command verifies that all persons that are referenced in the database actually exist and have the same name as the reference. The verification applies to parents, spouses and partners but not to other people like witnesses, where the name given in the record might differ from their official name.

Usage

vi

Synopsis

The vi command edits a person’s card file using the vi editor. The vi program must be present in your shell’s search path.

Usage

vim

Synopsis

The vim command edits a person’s card file using the vim editor. The vim program must be present in your shell’s search path.

Usage

!

! is an alias for shell.


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